Is כתפי Coptic, as Jastrow thought ? I don’t find טט
as Coptic for “two” (though Jastrow identifies it as
such) – and what is אפריקי ? It does not seem to be
Ethiopian. In what language might פת mean two ?

אפריקי has been thought to refer to Phrygia(n) but
there is already פרוגתייא = Phrygia(n), why not use
that ? Do we know anything about Phrygian words
for numerals, in particular the number two ?

What could Akiba or his source have been thinking
when he put טט = two, פת = two, finding these words
in כתפי & אפריקי ?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

Mata Kimasitayo
Bloomington Indiana

Yair Davidiy

Shalom re the message of Mata Kimasitayo I could not read the non-English text. At all events, re the identification of Afriki: do Gobineau (Le Comte de

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, Jan 31, 2013

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Shalom re the message of Mata Kimasitayo

I could not read the non-English text.
At all events, re
the identification of Afriki: do Gobineau (Le
Comte de GOBINEAU, "Histoire Des Perses", Paris 1869)
says that Afriki was the name of a city sacred to the Medes.

Others identified Afriki with an area in the
Caucasus possibly Iberia (a province of Georgia).
Zvi Casdoi, The Tribes of Jacob and the
Preserved of Israel (Hebrew), Haifa, 1926,
relates Totafot to words in Caucasian dialects.
It is to be noted that Totafot also makes sense in Hebrew.
The doubling of consonants (e.g. TT in totafot) usually implies an emphasis.
In Hebrew we have the word-root ToFH connoting a
swelling as found in words like Tofeh (swell up)
and in the word TOF meaning a drum usually made of leather.
Totafot may be derived from this root and connote
empty leather cases as if the leather is swollen.
Into these cases are inserted parchment with inscribed verses.
This fulfills the commandment.
"And they [these words] shall be for totafot
between your eyes" (Exodus 13:16; Deuteronomy 6:8; Deuteronomy 11:18).

Exodus 13:
16 It shall be as a sign on your hand and as
frontlets [Hebrew : totafot] between your eyes,
for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 6:
8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and
they shall be as frontlets [Hebrew : totafot] between your eyes.

Deuteronomy 11:
18 Therefore you shall lay up these words of
mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind
them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as
frontlets [Hebrew : totafot] between your eyes.

Note: The etymology of Rabbi Akiva does not necessarily contradict the above.